Singapore Sings

Similar to our last few destinations, Singapore welcomes us with rain. Also similar to our last few trips between cities Jess slept… The picture below she wouldn’t let me post on Instagram or Facebook or anything like that so to all of our followers get ready for an exclusive photo of the latest Jessica Reimer sleeping photo (she is sitting beside me right now and if she sees what I’m writing she may not be happy haha).

Behold…

Now that I have poked a little fun at Reimer I must thank her dearly for the surprise that she had for me today, our four year anniversary. I had no idea she was making a post about us (though this whole blog is about us, I know). It is amazing how she can always find a way to surprise me. I am definitely a lucky man! Thanks hun.

Like I said, Singapore welcomed us with rain, and a heavy rain at that. We got off the bus around 6:00pm and set off on foot in search of a place to stay. They were about half a kilometer away and after one place was full we found a cute little hostel called Superb Hub. The owner was an old lady who was as kind as they come. She had a room for us at $70.00 a night. We were happy as it was a private room and we wanted one since our next few months in Aus we will be in dorms. The room was pretty basic; you know you have your bed and… well that’s about all it had was a bed, and not really even a bed, it was a mattress on the floor. It was shortly after this that we discovered that Singapore is one of the most expensive places in the world and great for backpackers on a budget… Yeaaaaa No! After settling in we grabbed some food and then wandered around the area, Little India. Nothing too much was going on and we didn’t want to spend $10.00 on a beer so we headed home and talked with family on Skype. It is always nice to talk to people back home. Back to beer prices, we both find it hard to spend $10.00 for a beer when we are coming from places where you spend $0.50. Looking at that aspect of our trip we are not looking forward to Aus haha.

Ever since we found out we were flying out of Singapore to Melbourne we did some research on what to do in Singapore. The one thing that caught the eyes of both of us was the Singapore Zoo! We had planned to spend our only full day at the zoo, though we didn’t think it would actually be a full day. We caught a shuttle down to the zoo and arrived just after 10:00am and were there until 4:30pm when the shuttle took us back. We actually had to rush through a few things to make the shuttle. The zoo is massive with a diverse group of animals. Some of the highlights were: elephant show, Komodo dragon and baby one too, lion feeding, orangutan exhibit, and many more. The main highlight though was when Jess got to feed the giraffe. It even kissed her, though her hair was slimy with drool after, it was kind of gross haha.

When we caught the shuttle back into the city we decided we wanted to try the Singapore Flyer. This gigantic wheel is the largest observatory wheel in the world. I was eager to try this as I went up on the London Eye, when I was there in 2005, and thoroughly enjoyed it. When we got to the Flyer it was still daytime and we wanted to go around sunset and if we missed that then worst case is you get to see everything lit up at night (not a bad worst case scenario hey?). So with some time to kill we wandered around the area crossing the Helix-shaped bridge over towards the Marina Bay Sands. Here we encountered two attractions that we wanted to do but not enough time so we went our separate ways for about an hour or so. It was a tough and lonely hour… I went up to the Sky Park at the Marina Bay Sands while Jess headed to the Art-Science Museum for the world’s largest traveling Andy Warhol exhibit. (Jess’ edit: I was in art heaven… Best stumble-upon of the trip for me. Too bad photos were strictly prohibited.) For those of you who don’t know what the Sky Park is I suggest you YouTube it. It is an absolutely phenomenal structure. It is also larger than the Eiffel Tower if it was laying down beside the Sky Park. I bought a ticket to go up but later realized I could have said I was going to the restaurant, though I also heard if you don’t have a reservation they sometimes send you right back down. Anyway, the view was amazing. You basically see all of Singapore. The pictures can’t do it justice but it will give you an idea of what you can see. It was also a little nerve-racking approaching the wall as it is made of glass so it appears as if you are walking up to a ledge with nothing holding you back from falling. I will admit I approached very slowly most of the time. Even with my fear of heights being tested continuously for the hour I was really glad I went up there and would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Singapore.

Once we rendezvoused outside the Art-Science Museum we headed back towards the Singapore Flyer. As we approached the ginormous wheel nerves began to set in for Jessica. Like myself, she is not fond of heights and looking up at how high the wheel goes was not reassuring for her. Once inside Jess immediately gravitated towards the seat in the middle and hung out there for awhile. Eventually she mustered up the courage to move about and once up she did not sit back down. This worked out well as the first half of the 30 minute rotation you cannot see too much of the city. It is the last half where you get a great view of the skyline and the end of the bay. Absolutely stunning! We missed the sunset so we just had the lights. It was still really cool and after some fidgeting with Reimer’s camera we were able to get some great pictures.

Upon conquering the Singapore Flyer Jess was in a great mood and noted that we still had two hours before the malls closed. We decided we would just walk and see what we find and then go from there. What we did find was an underground world full of shops as it connects you to other shops. Basically Reimer’s dream. She actually loved this city so much and was quotes saying, “If I had to create a city in my dreams, this would be it.” I will have to support her here (and also any other time right?) as the city was pretty spectacular. The architecture was unique and everything seemed very organized. However, like most people know, Singapore has strict rules. People stared at me while I had a muffin on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) and soon after I finished I realized why. There was a sign that said no eating or drinking on train and the fine was $500.00. Thankfully I was not caught. Anywho… we both enjoyed walking around and looking at the stores. We each made impulse purchases; Jessica bought a cardigan and I some chocolate, everybody wins!

Once the stores began to close we headed back towards our place. The other thing we wanted to do on this day was try a Muslim dish called Murtabak. The restaurant was right around the corner from our place and we had seen other people eating it and it looked delicious. The best part was that it tasted even more delicious. Basically Murtabak is (curry flavored) meat, eggs, onion (and other veggies) in a thin pastry. You also get a curry gravy which you pour over the Murtabak. Jess and I decided to split one as it was nearly 11:00pm and we could not finish it. It was so filling and tasty that the 45 second walk home and up three flights of stairs appeared as if it was a marathon. We were sluggish, or as I like to say, feeling fat and sassy.

Our last day in Singapore we had intended to spend at the airport, but decided to get up a bit earlier and check out a couple malls in the newer Jurong Lake area. One of the malls (IMM) was supposedly and outlet mall but neither of us was impressed. So instead of sticking around there we headed over to the newer mall called the J-Cube. It was pretty cool but so new that hardly any of the stores has opened. We just wandered and checked out the indoor hockey rink and movie theatre; both were quite impressive. We had killed enough time and were ready to head out to the airport. We were getting there around 4:00pm and didn’t fly out until 10:30 that night. Too much time to spend in an airport? Not this one. Believe it or not, it actually wasn’t enough time. In each of the 3 terminals there is something to do or see. There are two movie theaters that offer free movies. They have an entertainment center with X-Boxes, PS3′s and other gaming systems, music and one of the two theaters. I surprised even myself by only spending about 30 minutes there but there was just so much to see. Some other highlights included: the worlds largest slide in an airport (4 stories), butterfly garden, rooftop pool, aviation center, free foot massage machines (though Jess left her newly bought magazine there and it was never to be seen again) and tons of shopping and dining. Overall our six hours in the Changi Airport flew by until we had to be at our gate. Our flight was with Emirates hailing from Dubai. Ever since we had booked this flight I have been pretty stoked to get on this flight. Even though we departed at 10:30pm I was going to make the most of my experience on this plane. First class and business class are amazing, or so they looked as we headed back into our economy seats. Even these were pretty nice as we had our own 12″ screen on the headrest in front of us. The movie and TV show selection was huge, as was the music selection (Dad they even had the Jerry Seinfeld CD on there. I listened to a bit of it and had some good laughs). I watched two movies that took me until about 2:00am. What surprised me was that Jess watched two longer movies and from what she says she didn’t sleep. This was also because of the screaming child we had across from us. We both found ourselves steaming with anger as we tried our hardest to catch a little bit of shuteye. The only plus side to this child waking us up was that a)It woke me up just as breakfast was coming by, and b)We were able to see the sun rise over the Australian Outback. That alone was worth being a little bit more tired. After watching the sunrise I tried my best to counter the screams by listening to some music. I actually listened to some blues music by House star Hugh Laurie. He is pretty amazing on the piano an singing too. I would have never of thought he would be a good singer but he proved me wrong. If you are into blues or jazz music check him out. The other great thing, and last I will mention, about this airline was the food. We were served dinner immediately after taking off. It was by far the best airline food I had ever had in my life. You can also get a cup of noodles whenever you like, just incase the meal didn’t fill you up. But unless you’re name is Rylund Hunter, you will be full haha. Anyway I’ve rambled on for too long. We have finally arrived in Aus and are looking forward to the new adventure it will bring with it. It is also crazy to think that this is the last country we visit before heading home. So close, yet so far. Cheers Mate!!

Mike

Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s Vancouver

It’s been a big shift from island to city living, but Malaysia’s beautiful, ultra-modern, and incredibly efficient capital has been good to us. I call KL the Malaysian Vancouver because everything about it reminds me of that city: the seamless public transportation, the green amongst huge skyscrapers, and the multicultural blend of people coexisting in it. The only real downside has been that the drastic climate change has done its best (worst?) to steal our hard-earned tans. This round of peeling hardly begins to compare to our experience in Jamaica (since this time we were wise enough to put on sunscreen before sunning), but I have to say I’m grateful to be moving shortly over to the beachy coastline of Australia.

Our night bus arrived at Pudaraya, KL’s bus station hub, somewhere around 6AM to the tune of pouring rain. We are visiting in low season, so I can’t pull snobby tourist and complain. The rain is hard (and hot!) but tends to let up after 15 minutes when it gives way to more heat and humidity. It could always be worse, right? Like, say, a snowstorm in April…

I’d read to rely on the red taxis here, since they are government-run and therefore are required to use meters and prohibited from haggling with customers. I wish I’d taken a picture of our cab; the back of the driver’s seat had a two-column list of strict rules and regulations drivers must follow. We’d been quoted 20RM (approximately $7 CAD) by a blue taxi, but our meter in the red one got us to the heart of Little India for a measly $2.50. I’m glad I took some random blogger’s advice, and I hope a random reader will someday take mine.

To give you all some background on why we’d choose to visit this country in low season: my university mentor, thesis supervisor, research colleague, and friend Dr. Ulrich Teucher is presently in KL on sabbatical from the University of Saskatchewan. This man single-handedly helped put my name on the academic charts by presenting our work at some of the biggest and best developmental psychology conferences in the world. Not only that, but he assisted me in realizing my dream of becoming a published author. So really… the absolute very least I could do was to make a point of crossing his path while we were both on the same continent on the other side of the world! I could go on about the fascinating qualitative research he’s been doing with Malay indigenous tribes, but I’ll put my foot in my mouth before you’re stuck here reading for hours.

Moving on…

Ulrich suggested we stay in the KL Sentral area for its accessibility, and I’m glad we did. Little India takes a close second only to Chinatown for low- to mid-range accommodations, but having to pay a bit extra was worth falling asleep to silence rather than raucous and street noise. For Mike and I, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore – being more prosperous and thus more expensive cities – are a bit of an indulgent gift to ourselves before we start scraping off the bottom in order to honor our budget in Aus. We found a week-old, clean MY Hotel with hot shower, great location, and sparkling new everything for roughly $35 CAD per night. We’ll be hard pressed to find a clean bunk bed for that in Aus, I’m guessing…

After checking in to our hotel, we fell into comas after a sleepless overnight bus from Kuala Perlis. TIP: if you’re checking in to a hotel a few hours early as we did, make sure you establish clearly and even in writing that you ought not to be charged for an extra night. This will save you the half hour back-and-forth argument we had to go through as we checked out. Being that I haven’t completely parted ways with my Type A personality, I came prepared with receipts and vouchers to prove we were in another city the night before, contrary to what they had registered in the system. If there was anywhere to have this debate, though, I’m glad it was KL for the simple fact that English is the common language for such a multicultural population. It makes things infinitely easier. When I asked Ulrich how to say “Hello” in Malay, he looked at me, laughed, and said “Hello”… so there you have it. He also taught us that “thank you” in Malay (taremi kasi) sounds an awful lot like “tear in my car seat.” After being in five countries, languages start to blur together, but I won’t soon forget that one.

Once we woke up we decided to walk over to the KL Sentral bus station which is the headquarters for all the trains and monorails around the city. In this station alone you could spend hours shopping, browsing, and understanding how to get from one spot to the next. Really, we found it’s quite easy… and really really, we also learned that Malays in KL hate walking and deem a ten minute walk “too far”, hence the swarms of red and blue taxis on the streets. Maybe it’s that we’ve been on our feet for two months, but ten minutes by foot seems nothing to us anymore. As you’ll read, this city went on to give our endurance a huge test.

We spent the rest of our day exploring the area, ending the evening with a trip to Petaling Street in Chinatown, where you’re ambushed by pushy salespersons for knock-offs of everything. Outside of a few small purchases, we weren’t that astounded since these are much the same products that have been in every other Asian country we’ve toured. Still, I’d say it’s worth a visit, if only for the atmosphere and the smell of roasted chestnuts in the air. In Chinatown you can also find beer and spirits, which tend to be a bit scarce elsewhere since nearly half the population is Muslim. That being said, be prepared to shell out a few extra dollars here for a drink; after an afternoon in the muggy sun, though, some would argue it’s totally worth it.

The following day we met up with Ulrich at breakfast for what would turn out to be a twelve-hour walking marathon/city tour. At the end of the day we joked that we were the only three people to ever walk from KL Sentral to the Petronas Towers and back. The aching leg muscles the next day were worth it, though, as you don’t get the same city experience when you’re in a metal coach car.

Here are just a few highlights of what we did and saw:

• KL Bird Park: the world’s largest free- flying aviary (which is fancy talk for a massive netted piece of forest) is part of the Lake Gardens, the lushest green park we’ve seen all trip. That it’s hardly ten minutes from the industrial train station hub is almost hard to believe, but it’s there and it’s beautiful! Also in the park is a planetarium (dad, I skipped this so one day you and I can go together), a butterfly garden, the National Museum, and the Museum of Islamic Art. You need at least a few days for the park alone!

Rick, we thought of you the whole time we were in the aviary. It was incredible! From the moment you walk in to the moment you leave, you’re surrounded by birds from all over the world. The highlight for me was having my photo taken with an bushy-eyed, cute-as-a-button owl (go ahead, roll your eyes everyone…) and a hornbill, Malaysia’s national bird. I’d advise going on a weekday if possible, to avoid heaps of families with little kiddies screaming in some combination of fear and delight. After all the noise there, though, we’ve decided a bird will not be our next pet…

• National Mosque (Masjid Negara): because there was a procession going on, we were unable to go upstairs to tour the outer perimeter of the building. As non-Muslims (and for me being female) you are not allowed inside the prayer rooms and are required to wear traditional garb in order to even set foot within the mosque. The outside is really grand and impressive, though!

• Menara KL or KL Tower: I know that the Petronas Towers are the major attraction in the city, but the view from 276 metres up at the KL Tower should make it to your must-see list. It’s the third highest communications tower in the world (first place goes to the CN Tower in Toronto), and offers a spectacular 360 degree view of the city and surrounding areas. There’s no glass flooring like in Toronto (thank God), but it put into perspective for us just how far we’d traveled by foot. We also saw firsthand what Ulrich had told me about: there are high-rise shopping centers every kilometer in downtown KL. Shopping seems to be a way of life here, and malls go out of fashion just as quickly as a new one can be built. Expect to hear the sounds of construction when you’re visiting the city center.

• Central Market: this market, on the outskirts of Chinatown, has been around since the late 1800s and is the most efficiently structured market I’ve seen yet, as it’s divided by the different nationalities that make up Malaysia. If you’re looking for crafts, artwork, or traditional jewelry… look no further than here. I drooled over some Kashmir pashminas, but had to resist as prices don’t come down any lower than $100 CAD a pop. Next time…

• Petronas Towers: Amazing! Day or night, these buildings – right in the middle of Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) – sparkle. The architecture is a modern twist on traditional Islam, and when they light up at night it’s hard not to look at them. We wandered through Suria mall, a five-storey designer boutique heaven at the bottom of the towers (my Visa was basically burning a hole in my purse here), before having dinner in the KLCC park overlooking the towers. Brilliant! After dinner we walked through the park, over to Traders Hotel, and up to the 32nd floor Skybar. As backpackers, we couldn’t afford to have a drink here (it was honestly more expensive than a drink in Vegas), but we snuck in without a reservation to catch the view for a few minutes from the rooftop bar. Somehow, despite my fear of heights, I even stood on the ledge and put my hand out into the open air for a photo!

If you followed this route on a map, you’d see we covered a hell of a lot of ground in one day. Had we stayed longer, I’m sure we would have broken the tour up into bite-size pieces, but the city has so much to offer that we couldn’t say no. Plus, having a free, knowledgable ‘local’ tour guide was a definite bonus. As I’ve said before, I am so humbled by the power of human connection. To be able to reconnect with friends from home in countries all over the world is by far one of the best experiences I’ve had to date. I can’t wait to see even more familiar faces when we get to Aus.

Since we’d exhausted our feet the day before, Mike and I had a lazy morning in preparation for the Batu caves in the afternoon. For those of you who don’t know, this was a major bucket-list item for me, since it’s a sacred Hindu shrine visited by an estimated one million pilgrims a year. The cave is host to all kinds of religion ceremonies, and is accessible by a staircase of 272 steps. Seriously, our legs have never looked better. What sets this temple apart is that it’s guarded by the world’s tallest Murga (deity) statue, standing 43 meters high. If you thought I was short before, allow me to put that into perspective…

After a few hours in and around the cave, we trained down to Midvalley Megamall for the most to-die-for pancakes we’ve ever eaten (nobody does breads and pastries like the Malays) and some outlet shopping. I know, right?! Outlet malls in SE Asia – heaven does exist! Rumour has it the shopping is even better in Singapore, which means danger for my Visa and a major test of my dear, sweet boyfriend’s patience.

It’s hard to imagine a city (uh… country?) that can out-perform KL, but we’ll soon find out if Singapore lives up to its reputation. I’m writing this from easily the nicest bus we’ve been on all trip – Mike can actually stretch his long legs! Then it’s only a few more days before we’re celebrating our four-year anniversary on an inter-continental flight bound for Australia. We are always on the move, but I’ve made a promise to myself to come back here and see what peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo are all about someday. If anyone’s interested, I’m thinking three months: one on the Thaislands, one in Malaysia, and one in Indonesia. Any takers? (If anyone at work is reading this, please pretend these last few sentences never happened… I promise you I don’t have the travel bug at all…)

Peace and love to all you beautiful people.

J.

Four years later…

What better way to wish my sweetheart a happy anniversary than to share it with our friends and family! Not only that, but I think it has value for you readers out there who have, will, or dream of traveling with your significant other. As always, I’ve got a few things to say…

Traveling as a couple is not easy. It takes a lot of hard work, and more patience than you ever thought possible. There’s no bigger test of two personalities than being sick, cold, wet, tired, hungry, and lost in a foreign country. (Yes, that actually happens and yes, it’s the worst.) Traveling is not real life, per se, but you’re still living so you’ve no choice but to take the good with the bad and deal with it.

To Mike: thank you for enduring my new-country-meltdowns with love, kindness, compassion, and – above all – patience. Thank you for teaching me so much, sometimes without even saying a word. Thank you for knowing when to yell, when to act, and when to keep quiet. More importantly, thank you for making me laugh every single day. And most importantly, thank you for being my best friend and for being a part of the greatest decision we’ve ever made.

To the rest of you: no more cheese, I promise.

Two and a half months ago Mike and I sat in the Vancouver airport without a plan or a clue…

Since then, we’ve navigated our way through six incredible countries and have pocketed experiences I could have never dreamed up. Every night before bed we’ve honored our commitment to filling in the Line-a-Day books I talked about in our very first post, and when I flip back through the pages even I’m jealous of myself.

I could never discourage someone from traveling, nor from doing it with someone you love. Everything about it is intoxicating! I can appreciate that twenty-four hours a day is a lot of hours to spend together (really, it’s all the hours!), but if you put in the time and effort, you will be greatly rewarded. I promise.

The best piece of advice I can give is not to be afraid to do some things on your own. Couples traveling (and couples life) gravitates around compromise, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have differences in interests. Be who you are; this makes being together a hell of a lot easier.

It’s hard to believe Mike and I are four years old today and get to celebrate in the beautiful city-state of Singapore. I am one lucky girl.

Lots more to come, so keep following!

Love to all of you, but especially to my other half.

J.

Langkawi: Welcome to Malaysia

Sadly we had to leave Thailand and head to Malaysia. I tell you it’s a tough life we have here right now island hopping and what not. But actually we were quite unhappy to leave Thailand. It has been so good to us and we will have some lifetime memories from this place and hopefully there will be more to come in the (near?) future. We were up early to get ready to catch our minibus that began our journey to Langkawi, a small island just south of Ko Tarutao island. We actually thought it was part of Thailand until we realized we only had a 15 day visa and looked into to our options a bit more. We were happy to see we could just pop over to another island instead of heading to the mainland. Anyway, our minibus was picking us up at 8:00am and at our guesthouse they didn’t start breakfast until 8:00am. However our lovely host there was up early to make us breakfast if we had liked. These people at Sincere guesthouse were amazing. As Jess had mentioned in our last post, I would definitely recommend this place to everyone. Our trip to Langkawi started on a minibus and two short car ferry rides to the mainland. From there it was about an hour to Trang a little city that looked fairly nice but we didn’t see much. Then we had to change to a new minibus that took us to the pier where we caught the ferry to Langkawi. The ferry ride was about 1.5 hours so they decided to show the movie Ghostrider. I don’t recommend this to anyone, awful… But of course I watched anyway and the worst part was is that we reached Langkawi before the movie was over so I don’t know what happens. I thought that was a bit of a dick move on the staffs behalf. If they are going to show a movie, show a shorter one, haha. Enough complaining. On our minibus we met a couple from Bristol England who were also headed to the same area of the island as us so we decided to meet up for drinks later. They were also meeting a German couple from Berlin who were doing a visa run and so the six of us had some drinks and got to know each other a little better. Everyone was very nice and we had a great time. Jess even did some salsa dancing at the bar we were at. We didn’t stay out late as we all made plans for the next morning together. However, after we left, the four of them stayed out until about 3:00am as they just kept drinking beers. Only two made it out in the morning, it was the English couple.

Our plans were to rent scooters and head up to this cable car that gets you up a mountain for some spectacular views. We tried to get bikes but soon found that in Malaysia you need to have a motorbike license in order to drive a bike (off topic: you also need a plug in adaptor). We decided on, or had to take, a cab instead (which turned out to be a great idea as it rained most of the afternoon, and apparently I crash bikes). As we approached the park where the cable car was our friendly cab driver told us he was taking us to the better entrance so we wouldn’t have to walk as far. This just turned out to be a place where his friends sold cable car tickets and he got a commission. The tickets they were selling and the tickets we purchased at the gate did not look the same, so if you are traveling to Langkawi and are doing the cable car save yourself the hassle and just buy your tickets from the ticket counter. This cable car is the steepest in the world and as we were standing at the bottom looking up we (Jess) were having some second thoughts about what we were doing. The ride up was hilarious listening to the two girls laugh in fear and battle through moments of panic. Quite entertaining indeed. The reason the cable car is the steepest in the world is because near the top of the mountain you run into a two or three hundred foot cliff that you have to climb straight up. The view was spectacular but I will admit that this part was a little crazy as you are moving way more vertical than horizontal at this point. After the cliff you reach the first of two stops where there is a nice lookout point over the village and bay. We stopped here briefly for some photos and moved on to the next stop which was just another mountain peak. However, here you could walk to a bridge that you walk across to another peak. This was pretty scary as the bridge moved, some of the floor boards were loose and looking at the cracks (they were wide too!) between the boards was straight down. This was enough to stop Jess as she wasn’t feelin’ it. It was a little nerve racking to cross especially when it moved, though it was subtle. Yet it was an amazing experience and view, I would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to do it.

When we were up on the mountain we saw a beach that looked fairly nice and decided to check it out. What we didn’t know was that the beach was part of a 5 star resort. So we walked on in a grabbed a chair and sat down. This was short lived as we were caught and arrested… Joking parents. It started to rain so we headed back to the lobby and grabbed a cab back to our beach. We were soaked from the rain so we all headed to our separate places and indulged in a little siesta. This has been my favorite part of the trip so far, I love my siestas.

Our night began with a trip to a local market. Our German friends also came so it was the six of us who went. It was cool as we were the only foreigners there. We were looking for some dinner more than anything so we browsed the food selection. Though it was small the food was amazing. Both me and Jess ate, had a drink and were fairly full, all for the cost of $3.00CAD. My favorite part about traveling for sure. Do I say that too much?? After the market we grabbed some beers that we had purchased earlier and headed to the beach and just hung out. I won’t even tell you how much the beers cost as it will just result in me telling you that this also is my favorite part of traveling. We stayed at the beach until about 11:00pm and then headed for some food before bed. Nothing like butter chicken masala with garlic cheese naan bread to top off the night. I know it seems like an early night but there really isn’t much that goes on in Langkawi. It is a fairly sleepy town which has it’s pros and cons. We stayed on the happening beach and it definitely wasn’t happening at all. Needless to say, the three days we stayed there was enough.

Our last day was again, pretty chill. In preparation for the night bus ahead I slept in while Jess had intentions on heading to the beach. She did get up in time but she was sidetracked trying to resolve our shipping issues. Once we were both up we headed to Underwater World, Malaysia’s largest aquarium. Yes, of course it was my idea. It was not as big as the one in Bangkok, but it did definitely have something to offer. First and foremost were the rockhopper penguins. These little dudes were hilarious to look at. When I saw them all I could think of was that surfing movie with penguins and how the rockhopper penguin was awesome at surfing, haha, I’m such a kid. Other things that were hilarious was all the Barb fish, about 6 or 7 different kinds. We couldn’t get enough of them especially the T-Barb. Sorry mom but this really made us laugh. We also saw some black tip reef sharks which is what we were “swimming” with in Ko Lanta. Overall it was a pretty neat experience.

We were only left with a few hours before we had to leave so we stocked up on some snacks and did some research about Kuala Lumpur as we kind of knew where we wanted to stay. We then headed off to catch our night bus. I am getting really sick of these things as I can never sleep on them. We took a one hour ferry to the mainland, shocker, Jess slept… I’m going to start taking pictures of her whenever she sleeps during travel and posting them somewhere. I figure it will catch on like planking or Tebowing. Reimer sleeping, a worldwide craze. After the ferry we headed to the bus station in Kuala Perlis. A seedy open bus station that was crawling with alley cats begging for food and rats dragging leftovers into the bushes. Once in awhile the cats would chase the rats and all of this was our entertainment for two hours. The bus finally came just after 10:00pm and we were off to Kuala Lumpur! Now hopefully we can get some sleep. Night!!

Mike

Ko Lanta: Farewell to Thailand

Where does the time go?! We are now two months on the road and, as of April 1, are saying goodbye to Thailand – a country I will see again soon. When I think back to February and how little and scared I felt setting foot into Bangkok, I have to laugh a bit. Now I feel completely comfortable and at peace in Thailand, which obviously makes it harder to leave.

As Mike told you all last time, dehydration completely kicked my ass and prevented me from celebrating Skott’s “25th” birthday with our crew. I am still bitter about this, since we’ve really connected with our travel mates and there’s no better way to seal a bond than with buckets and beach parties! Oh well – I know my other half partied hard enough for the both of us, so that will have to do.

We all boarded our ferry to Ko Lanta in less than great form; at the very least, it was nice to catch the cool breeze off the sea as you ferried the hour between islands. I will definitely miss the organized chaos that is so characteristic of tours and travels in Thailand: oftentimes, your receipt is passed through successive hands until it reaches the right pair and you get a sticker slapped onto the front of your shirt and are herded off with a small sea of equally confused backpackers. In retrospect, I agree with Mike that we should have kept all our stickers as markers of where we’ve been and how we got there. However, you learn quite quickly to ditch the stickers upon arrival as they are a dead giveaway to hawkers and travel agents that you are a lost puppy in search of a home.

Our travel mates had pre-arranged a guesthouse for the four of them, having been unable to secure anything for six people. That was fine; we’ve learned to go with the flow and scope accommodations out upon arrival. What we didn’t expect is that Ko Lanta would greet us with pouring rain instead of sun. Combine that with one part dehydrated, haven’t-eaten-in-24-hours girl and one part hung-over boy, and you have a very lame, cranky, homeless backpacking pair. Mike stumbled upon Sincere Guesthouse (located just off the main pier) and despite paying a bit more than we’d budgeted (roughly $25/night), it was obvious pretty early on that we are paying for quality. You look out directly onto the Andaman sea, seated comfortably on hammocks or what I call Thai pillow-chairs (I’m sure they have a proper name) as you eat and drink delicious home-made Thai food. Chompoo and King – an adorable, young-and-in-love Thai couple – were beyond hospitable and, as you’ll read later, made damn sure we will be back to this lax island. Top notch!

Once we were settled, us ladies figured a spa day was the perfect way to escape the rain. We wandered into Sincerity Massage and Spa and were blown away. I’m not joking when I say this spa rivals those back home! An hour-long oil-turned-Thai massage ran me just over $10 and was an interesting experience to say the least. I’m actually going to hunt around and see if anyone offers Thai massages back home; the short-term pain (they literally contort you like a pretzel) is worth the long-term gain. The photo below hardly does the view from the back porch – where the staff gave us complimentary fresh fruit and lemongrass tea – justice. This island definitely reminds me of lake life, where the pace is slow but the people are friendly and the surroundings are pretty. Mike read somewhere that as a foreigner or Farang, you aren’t treated as such but rather as a child of the island. So hippie and Jess appropriate… and also true!

Since my episode with dehydration, it seems nearly everyone we’ve been on the road with has come down with some sort of bug, so it’s rarely been all six of us together these past few days. Honestly? I think it has to do with what a dirty, disgusting island Ko Phi Phi was. What we’ve learned (and what I would strongly suggest to all travelers) is to listen to your bodies and take the time to sleep it off. No sense in trying to muscle through pain and making yourself worse!

My favourite experience on Ko Lanta has definitely been the Vinyasa yoga us girls started practicing with the lovely Mona at Relax Bay Resort. Her open-concept studio is my dream studio brought to life: you practice under a thatched bamboo roof and look out onto the lush green jungle that hugs the Andaman sea. Honestly, the only thing that could have made our mornings better was a post-yoga mimosa! Mona is an ex-pat from Los Angeles who fell just as much in love with the island her first visit as we all did. I can’t promote her enough! And if you’re too chicken shit to try a class, at least wander down to the resort’s enclosed beach to soak some sun. It was actually quite unique: the shoreline was littered with gorgeous shells and pieces of coral. I wish it weren’t illegal to export coral, because I would love to turn a few of those pieces into jewelry. But I digress…

Outside of pampering, shopping, eating, and drinking as many fruit shakes as humanly possible (we are going to miss them when we go!), we also booked a long tail boat tour of four nearby islands. Carly stayed home with exhaustion and Skott had taken off for a ten-day meditation retreat in Surat Thani (that crazy man… follow their blogto see how he holds up!), so Marissa, Mike, Shawna, and I set off early in the morning. I’m not sure what it is about Thailand, but they seem to like to do tours in fours. I’ll follow the format I used for our island hopping in Railay…

1. Ko Chuck: our first snorkeling spot after a 50-minute long tail boat ride from the pier in Lanta’s old town. Because of the time of year, the islands tend to shuffle between extreme humidity and extreme rain and cloud. We caught some rain on the way out, but it was clear skies thereafter. The island is small and the snorkeling was much like we’d done on islands previous, with the exception of heaps more jelly fish. I swear it’s something in my blood because those buggers loved me! As you can see by the photo, Mike was totally in his element.

2. Ko Mook: easily the coolest/best part of the tour. Having already visited Maya Beach (AKA “The Beach” beach), when I read that the Emerald Cave and its hidden lagoon was the alternate location, I had to check it out. It’s a shame we can’t upload photos and videos from Mike’s underwater camera via our iPhones, because words simply won’t do it justice!

Essentially you’re dumped into the water and made to swim about 80 metres through a cave without natural or artificial lighting. If you’re lucky, your guide will bring a flashlight (or your boyfriend will have a water-proof camera and set off the flash every few seconds to guide the way!)… if not, you follow the masses and hope you don’t make a wrong turn. They call it the emerald cave because on either end of the cave (when you’re entering from open water and when you’re approaching the lagoon), the sun casts off the rocks in a way that turns the water green like the gemstone. It’s absolutely gorgeous!

What makes the experience somewhat eerie is that you only have a very limited window (approximately 90 minutes during low tide) where the cave isn’t filled to the brim with water and only accessible with proper diving equipment. Needless to say, our stay at the lagoon was picturesque but very brief! Altogether, this alone made the tour worthwhile. A word of caution: everyone (Mike included) was subject to some pretty invasive groping on the way back. It’s like you’re at a sleazy night club full of sleazy men… except it’s pitch black and you’re up to your ears in freshwater.

3. Ko Ngai: we stopped at this sleepy, picture-perfect island for lunch on the sand and some sun bathing. If you’re in the market for a private getaway, I’d try here. We tried to negotiate a quick beach-front foot massage with a few locals but ran out of time. I was content to dig my toes in the white sand and relax in the turquoise water.

4. Ko Sa: our second snorkel stop. After being feasted on by jellies, I figured I would sit this round out… until everyone from our group got in the water and kept saying how much there was to see! Fortunately there were no jellies at the coral bay we anchored at, so I was happy to jump in. Of all the snorkeling we’ve done thus far, this was definitely the best. We saw all sorts of colorful coral, different fish (here you get tired quickly of the same-same black and yellow striped fish who swarm your boat hoping someone will toss them a slice of pineapple), and Mike even snapped a few photos of a water snake! We also discovered a reef shark had been haunting nearby – don’t worry, they’re harmless – but never came face-to-face with it ourselves. Chalk this one up to the language barrier: our guide had tried to usher us over to where the shark was spotted, but all of us thought we heard him instruct us to get back in the boat… so that’s what we did. Whatever – we still swam with sharks and lived to tell about it.

Marissa and I both fell asleep on the loungers at the front of the boat for the 45-minute ride back. I’ve got to give a shout out to mama Jude for blessing me with the genetic ability to fall asleep anywhere, anytime. I am going to come home rested like you won’t believe! It will feel more than great to climb into my own bed after four months away, though…

As for food on the island, I have to say I was pretty impressed. We got to know the owner at a little resto-cafe called ‘Not a Toy’ and spent our fair share of meals there. With grilled cheese and peanut butter and banana sandwiches on the menu, how can you not?! There are also a ton of cute sea-side restaurants, all of which do a great job of Western and Thai food.

With Skott already embarked for his meditation retreat, the girls opted to do a one-week stint in Bali. I will openly admit how envious I am, since we had to cut Indonesia from our itinerary. However, it’s nice to have friends who’ve been to get solid advice for when it’s our turn down the road. We really miss you guys and are looking forward to a solid reunion when everyone is home sweet home in Saskatchewan!

After some good-byes, a leisurely sea-side hammock lounge followed by an equally leisurely siesta, Mike and I chose to rent a motorbike and see what else the island had to offer outside of the small area we’d been staying in. Definitely my favourite part of the island is how it maintains a really calm, cool, and quiet vibe about it, despite the fact that there are pockets of activity and people at each of the bays or beaches that line its perimeter. We motored from the northwest pier to the southern tip of the island, where you find the Mu Koh Lanta National Park. Because we arrived at dusk to experience the sunset from the lighthouse which oversees the park, we didn’t have time to see or do much else since we had to motorbike back about 40 minutes in the dark. The view was stunning, though, and since we both have our hearts set on getting back to Ko Lanta, we’ll be sure to visit it again in the daytime.

Just for bragging rights, I should point out that I successfully drove my first Asian motorbike… in the dark… and was passing like a pro! This is a great island to learn to drive, since there are a lot of side roads away from the main highway that are paved but far from busy. I opted to hand the wheel over to Mike once we were approaching the market near our place, given that it’s chock full of maniac tuk tuk drivers. No joke, as I pulled off to a side road Mike made a comment of how proud he was I got us across the island unharmed. …five seconds later, the bike skidded out from underneath him and threw us off into the sand. Textbook hilarious, people; that was my best laugh on the island for sure. Thankfully, only Mike’s ego experienced any bruising.

So I mentioned earlier about how helpful the staff at Sincere Guest House were, and here’s the main reason why: as we were laying in bed one night, Mike checked his email and discovered our package we’d posted from Bangkok was confiscated by customs and returned to the post office in Siam Paragon mall. Why? Apparently you are not allowed to post Buddha images or artifacts over 5cm without an export permit from the Thailand Department of Fine Arts. WHAT?! The people of Thailand have done a great job of keeping this a secret from me, the ever-ignorant tourist who’d been toting my Monday Buddha statue in my backpack with me ever since I bought it in Siem Reap. Just to be clear, it is perfectly fine to ship this statue from Cambodia, Malaysia, or any other country in the world with the exception of the one I tried to ship from.

Seriously… Just my luck.

Needless to say, we were pretty anxious of the fact that we wouldn’t be returning to Bangkok (or Thailand, for that matter) with our Visas set to expire and a plane already arranged from Singapore to Melbourne. Chompoo (the guesthouse manager) caught wind of our situation and worked a huge miracle by calling in a few favors to friends and ultimately getting the package (sans statue) recalled and resent home sweet home to Canada. Chompoo: if you’re by some freak chance reading this, you are forever my Thai guardian angel! Not only are our belongings (and your gifts!) back on track, but the post office agreed to hang on to the statue until Marissa and Carly can come pick it up and take it home on board with them. So although we’ve definitely made the best of a bad situation, my suggestion and hope is that Thai border/customs officials and salespersons make this fact more widely known to prevent future traveler headaches like mine! I can understand that Buddhism is key to Thai culture and they don’t want foreigners exporting Buddhas for the wrong reasons, but believe me – I will worship the hell out of that statue when I finally see it on home ground.

In the meantime, we are ready to start country number five of our tour. Off to Malaysia we go!

xo J

Koh Phi Phi

Finally we have made it to the islands. I can’t express how much joy the word island brings to me. We arrived at Koh Phi Phi around 11:00am with our new travel companions and headed on a search to find a place to stay. This proved to be more of a challenge than we thought as we took a wrong turn and began to loop back towards where we had been dropped off. After about half hour of wandering in the blistering heat with packs you start to hate backpacking a little bit, or I do anyway. We finally found a place and realized that we were so close before but made a right instead of a left; I’ll blame the map. Once settled we decided to head to the beach, something that we were all excited about as all you hear about Phi Phi is it has amazing beaches (this was reassured as everyone had to pay 20 Baht upon arrival to help keep the beaches clean). Well they definitely didn’t mean the main beach because it was horrendous and the water was gross. I feel this is the product of the incessant partying that occurs on this beach every night. I get this hunch because if you go in the water you have to watch your step or else you will step on beer bottles that have been tossed in. Not what we were expecting at all. Another reason we were looking forward to coming to Phi Phi was to meet up with our Irish lads. It is always good to catch up with them and hear about the crazy shenanigans that ensued during our time apart from each other (I keep pushing for them to make a movie). We met up with them at an Irish pub (of course) and then headed down to the beach where the parties are; I’m a hypocrite, I know. Upon arriving at the beach we were welcomed by a free sex show in the ocean. Yup, some guy and girl were going at it in the water. Everyone was watching and they knew it too. I won’t lie, it was a little awkward. As for the party itself I think the best part was that it was on a beach. FYI – buckets make for a rough morning. I only had one (after a few beer) and as I watched the bartender pour the bottle of vodka into the bucket I could already feel the hangover, and to no surprise I had one. It made for a rough morning boat ride, but a simple hangover couldn’t stop me from going to Maya Beach.

We hired a boat to take us around for four hours. We had planned to hit up a few beaches, however, we only made it to one, Maya Beach. We loved it so much that we just stayed there for the four hours. For those of you who don’t know, this is where they filmed the movie The Beach. Naturally a few ladies did mistake me for Leonardo DiCaprio but I had to let them down easy, ha! I probably didn’t even get a glance haha. Anyway, the beach was amazing and the water was amazing and the limestone out in the ocean was amazing. So to sum it all up it was pretty, you guessed it, AMAZING!! It was a little crowded but there was about an hour where there was only about 20 people on the beach, down from 200 or so. That was the best as you could enjoy the scenery in a nice peaceful atmosphere. Also on the island you could walk to the other side where there was a little bay that we went snorkeling in. It was really nice water but the current was pretty strong. We snorkeled for about half and hour then headed back to the beach side for one last tanning session. I can’t get enough of the beaches here. We headed back to town around 3:00pm and were very hungry. We remembered this Mexican place we saw called the Banana Sombrero and had lunch there. Anyone who comes to Koh Phi Phi I would highly recommend this place. We had nachos and tacos and enchiladas and any other Mexican dish you can think of, it was all excellent. It was definitely a nice change from Thai food. After digesting this meal our crew decided to continue our around the world dining and hit up an Italian restaurant for a late dinner. It was called La Mamita. Again this place was absolutely perfect. The pasta was delightful and the pizza was hearty. I made my own pizza and with three slices left felt like I was going to get sick, but powered through because it was so good. Needless to say I woke up the next morning and was still full.

While traveling we have tried to do something fairly active each day (besides constantly walking and climbing up stairs) so we decided to do some kayaking. We were told about a little beach that not many people head to called Nui Bay, which was just around the corner from our beach. We all like the sound of that so headed there. We were told it was only a 15 minute kayak… Maybe 15 minutes for a long-tail boat as it took us almost an hour, but once we arrived it was definitely worth it. There was maybe four other people on the beach when we arrived and they soon left after. It was also a great snorkeling area where I could put to use my newly bought gear. It was pretty great other than the fact that some fish must be getting used to being fed by people because when they saw me they swarmed me and some even nipped at me. It was a little overwhelming but I have a cool video of it on my camera. After another lengthy kayak back we headed in for a little siesta (something that we have done quite often on our trip) before we headed up the hill, backing our place, to see the viewpoint. It was pretty amazing to see how small the land was between the two bays. Most of the conversation that occurred was about the tsunami back in 2004 and how we could not imagine being down on that little strip of land. It was kind of a depressing conversation, but you can’t help but think about it when you are looking down on the land.

Our last full day on Phi Phi was a special day as it was our fellow traveler Skott’s birthday. For his birthday Skott went rock climbing with Shawna, Carly and Marissa. Jess and I decided to pass on the opportunity, which was too bad because their stories sounded amazing, but seemed to be for the best as Jess ended up getting sick in the afternoon and was down for the night. The night was spent celebrating Skott’s birthday and it was great. It all started off with him getting iced and progressed from there. Most of the night was us jumping around from bar to bar until it was time to go home. Just a heads up, Swedish fisherman shots is basically medicine in a little glass.

It seems like I always drink the night before we have to get on a boat. So waking up to get on a boat the next morning was not favorable for me nor Jess, who was still feeling ill. Our one hour boat ride was spent head in hands trying not to focus on the motion of the boat. We probably looked like a couple winners for that hour haha.

In retrospect, I personally can say I didn’t like Phi Phi. If you’re looking to party it’s great. But it seems like that’s all there is to do there, besides beach and stuff, but I mean you can do that anywhere and avoid the D-bags that Phi Phi brings with it. Also the sand didn’t treat me, and a few others we saw on the ferry, to well as my feet look like they have chicken pox or something.

Not sexy at all. We are looking forward to hitting a bit quieter I a place as we are heading to Ko Lanta. Hopefully we find what we are looking for. Cheers!!

Mike

Krabi Province: Ao Nang and Railay

I am happy to say we are officially/finally settled into what I affectionately call the Thaislands lifestyle! (Islands of Thailand, in case you didn’t pick up on that…) Tan, swim, explore, eat, drink, sleep, and repeat. I love it! I have a feeling the next twelve days (yes, unfortunately that’s all the time we have here) will be gone before we know it. As long as I have a tan to take with me as a souvenir, though, I’ll be happy. So far so good!

As I’m sure is true of every backpacker’s journey, we’ve had to make cut-backs to accommodate our tight schedule. It’s hard to believe we showed up on this continent almost two months ago without the slightest clue of what the hell we would do or see. Anyway, after spending some time in front of a map of southern Thailand, we figured we’d get the most bang for our buck (in that we’d hit more of the islands we hoped to visit) if we forfeited the Thai gulf and went directly to the Andaman coastline. It works out nicely because our timeline has us traveling further south every few days, putting us right near the Malaysian border in time for our Visas to expire. I expect to hear outrage and disappointment from those of you who have been and seen the other islands (no, we won’t make it to a full moon party, and no, we can’t justify chewing up four days for diving certification…), but after only a small handful of days on the islands thus far, I can already promise you we will be back. Waskesiu, you have big shoes to fill come summertime…

As Mike mentioned in our last post, we were dumbstruck to run into our friends we’d left behind in Siem Reap at a random, dodgy guest house in Bangkok waiting for the bus. I have a new appreciation for how small this world is! (Keep reading – it’s about to get smaller.) We each boarded different busses – some to Phuket, one to Koh Tao, and us to Krabi town – and buckled in for what would be a rather sleepless night. I know this is very Western and naïve of me, but I can’t wrap my head around the transit system here. We have yet to board a bus with functioning overhead lighting, which makes reading and/or writing a bust because the driver shuts off the main cabin lights as soon as the sun sets! Without any form of entertainment short of talking with your neighbours in the dark, you eventually doze off… until you are rudely woken up at some ungodly hour by a commission-hungry restaurant owner barking at you to de-bus and eat, since it’s your only break of the trip. My nerves, my ass, and the rest of me could definitely use a break from bus life. That being said, though, I have to give huge props to the rest of our crew who – no joke – spent roughly 30 hours straight on the bus to get from Siem Reap to southern Phuket. The Valium surely helped here…

We arrived at the bus station in Krabi around 8:00AM and, in a thoughtless daze from lack of sleep, were snapped up by a tour guide and shuttled over to Baan Suan Resort, a hotel nestled smack between Krabi town and Ao Nang. Although our bamboo hut was quaint, the pool was refreshing, and the price was right, the resort was tucked away pretty deep in the forest which made us feel secluded from civilization in both centers. To the staff’s credit, they offered complimentary shuttles to and from the main drag in Ao Nang and rented out motorbikes with insurance for $3/day. Had we stayed longer than one night, it would have been nice to hop on a bike and see what Krabi town has to offer.

For those of you who don’t know, the greater Krabi province is not actually an island, per se, but instead is made up of a series of peninsular, mainland beaches (Ao Nang, Ton Sai, and Railay) accessible mostly by boat. Of these three, Ao Nang is sort of the ugly duckling and gives off more of a pretentious resort vibe (chock full of overpriced boutiques and every type of food and accommodation imaginable) than a natural beauty. If nothing else, our short stay was a great jumping-off point for the rest of our time in Thailand. Even though the beach wasn’t spectacular, the sun still shone and the water was like a nice, warm bath. A beach is a beach is a beach! Plus, if you wandered far enough East you could cross a thin river to swarms of hungry, adorable monkeys. I learned the hard way in Costa Rica not to open-toothed smile at monkeys (they will feel threatened and chase you down the beach as you scream and your boyfriend laughs hysterically…), but I definitely could have stolen a few to bring home as pets. These monkeys were especially tourist-friendly, likely the product of one too many foreigners handing over bananas in exchange for a quick photo op.

We grabbed the shuttle back to our resort around 5:30PM, having decided a night on the town in Ao Nang wasn’t worth the hassle of finding our way back to our foresty home, and that’s when things got interesting. The picture above does a good job of showing how cute and homey our bamboo hut was. What’s not pictured are the cockroaches – AKA the bane of my existence. No matter how rushed you are to get out the door, always zip up your belongings and never leave an otherwise harmless, half-eaten package of Oreos out on your vanity. This is an invitation for chaos.

We’d had a nice, late dinner and capped our night with a few games of pool; Mike played against a teen resident of the guest house and lost, but quickly redeemed himself against me. We played on a snooker table, and pride prevented me from using the Granny cue. I’m going to go ahead and excuse my loss based on this. Anyway, words probably won’t do this story justice (and we don’t have photos as proof, though there is a hilarious video I wish we could upload), but as I reached for my hair brush I came face-to-face with the sickest cockroach I’ve seen all trip. I swear the damn thing looked me square in the eye and lunged for my hand. Ugh. I tried unsuccessfully to trap it in a Pringles tin (Courtney, this made me think of the baby mouse vs. Tupperware/canvas fiasco in Victoria) and was practically climbing out of my skin. I picked up the Oreos package and told Mike I would throw it in the trash outside since I figured it was cockroach bait. He seemed to think it was unreasonable to assume a cockroach would want anything to do with Oreos… until he grabbed the package from my hand and another roach shot out and ran up his arm. The Oreos, Mike’s iPhone, and his male pride went flying. (My knight in shining armor!) The next ten minutes were spent screaming, laughing, and fashioning our mosquito net into a cockroach-proof shelter. I can tell you all that I did not sleep well. Diva? Guess so.

The next morning we checked out, shuttled back into Ao Nang, and booked ourselves on a long tail boat (see photo below) to Railay, the absolute prettiest place I’ve ever been. There’s a reason Phranang Beach (one of three beaches that hug the Railay bay) is ranked among the best in the world. Once we walked from West to East Railay (AKA the backpacker ghetto) and grabbed a room at Diamond Cave Resort, we busted down to the water to catch the last few hours of sunshine. What I didn’t realize is this bay is thought to be the resting place for the princess goddess Phranang, and an enormous shrine has been erected in the limestone mountain’s mouth on the west side. If you look at the photo, you’ll see the not-so-subtle pun I threw into that last sentence… Penises everywhere! I later learned these offerings are to symbolize Thai fishermen’s hopes for a fertile and prosperous land. This makes good anatomical sense, but it’s hard not to laugh when you watch hoards of tourists flock to take pictures of hundreds of phallic statues. Only in Asia.

Having booked a tour of the neighbouring four islands early the next morning, we downed a few beers and cuddled up in front of our iPhones at our resort, ready for an early night. Little did I know that a random Facebook status change about my love for Railay would lead to a reunion with Marissa, a friend I’d worked with at Brewster’s in Regina five years ago and who I’d more or less lost touch with, living in separate cities. She was actually staying at the resort next door and what started as a couple catch-up beers has evolved into a new travel crew. Marissa is traveling with fellow RN Carly and Carly’s sister and brother-in-law, Shawna and Skott. Honestly, I am so humbled by our small, beautiful world. It seems each day I find new reasons to be grateful for all I have (a new blog concept, perhaps?), and my latest has been the ability to re-connect with an old friend in such a gorgeous country. The bonus has been making new friends, and especially ones that are close to home!

For all of you reading our blog: (a) THANK YOU! and (b) do me a favour and take a few minutes to check out Shawna and Skott’s website, where they’ve done an incredible job of chronicling their 18 month around-the-world journey. They are roughly halfway through their adventure and I have to admit I am really inspired by what they’re doing and the continued courage and perseverance it takes to do it. What I find really interesting (and comforting!) is how similar their dynamic as a couple is to Mike and I. Let’s face it: I will be Type A until the day I die, where Mike is a textbook Type B. When you come across a couple who have been able to reach and maintain such a harmonious middle ground, it makes me really excited for how we will shape our own future. Lots of good things coming for the two of us!

After sleeping through my alarm (which never happens), we had to skip breakfast and book it to the other side of Railay for our day-long big boat tour of the four islands. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll recap briefly each one below:

1. Poda Island: incredible sand, fresh water, and a good place for a breezy, lazy mid-morning nap. We hardly scratched the surface here, but I’m guessing you could do some great trekking and/or rock climbing if time allowed.

2. Chicken Island: we did a boat-by of the island, but never set foot on it. The island is named for a bird-like rock formation on its southern tip, but we’d argue it’s more of a turkey than a chicken.

3. Si Island: this is a small semi-circle group of limestone mini-mountains that encloses lots of coral and marine life. Here we jumped into the water for some snorkeling. Unfortunately, Mike’s water-proof camera wasn’t so water-proof and he only managed to get a couple snaps before it quit on him. Luckily, however, he has since been able to bring it back to life.

4. Tup Island: this is a fan favourite, which means the place is crawling with tourists. What sets this island apart is that when the tide recedes, sand bars (like little walking streets) emerge to link Tup to its two neighbouring islands. Mike did some snorkeling here while I opted to do what I do best: suntan! Mom, you would have loved the people watching on this island in particular. I can’t get enough of Japanese tourists and how seriously they take picture-taking. I spent a good ten minutes watching a Japanese couple do a photo shoot with their point-and-shoot Nikon, complete with tripod and wardrobe changes. Hilarious!

The tour itself was a great – albeit somewhat rushed – experience, and we are both glad we did it. We didn’t make it over to James Bond island, but I have a feeling I’ll be back to Railay down the road. You could easily spend weeks here, as this area is a Mecca for rock climbers and professional sun bathers. I’d love to spend more substantial time trying both.

As for night life, we checked out most of the major bars along the boardwalk of Railay East. My vote definitely goes to The Last Bar! Drinks are a bit pricy (which you come to expect at any tourist trap), but we listened to amazing live guitarists and watched a jaw-dropping fire show. This spot is definitely worth a stop. Overall, we found the beach really relaxed and without the pretense or overwhelmingly douchy bar scene you find in some of the more densely populated areas. I was also recommended and tempted to get a traditional bamboo tattoo at Bamboo Tattoo (go figure), but opted against it at the last second for time and money’s sake. New ink is in my future, though – it’s been decided!

Seriously, people – Railay is to the south of Thailand what Chiang Mai is to the north. I have been in beach bum hippie paradise, but I’m looking forward to our next destination: the Kohs (Phi Phi, Lanta, and Lipe). The six of us will be boarding a ferry to Koh Phi Phi and spending the better part of a week leaning the ins and outs of the island. Stay tuned.

Peace and love from Railay!

J.